MARK Bagshaw is frustrated and angry about the wasted talent. He recalls a young man gifted in maths who had to give up his university studies because he could not make the lectures.

"This student topped his year in maths, but a couple of months later he dropped out. Why? Because he could not rely on taxis to get him to his lectures every day.

"Australia lost a potential genius," he says with a smile of resignation. "I am tired of watching intelligent people sitting at home with their fires going out. This is not a decent society."

The young man, like Dr Bagshaw, had a profound physical disability that required a carer to get him out of bed and special transport to get him to Sydney University. Unlike Bagshaw, the young man was defeated by circumstances and retreated to the isolated world inhabited by the majority of people with disabilities.

Dr Bagshaw wants the party that wins the federal election to launch a national intervention for the 3.9 million Australians with disabilities. They make up almost 20% of the population but only half are in the workforce.

While John Howard and Kevin Rudd dish out money to farmers, pensioners and working families, little mention is made of the one in five Australians confined to a life of low expectations and unfulfilled potential.

"There is a lack of creative thinking. Because most are welfare-dependent, the ALP thinks they have the vote tied up. The reality is we have to be more focused on business because that is where the progress will be."

Dr Bagshaw believes it's time the major parties focused on the plight of these people because the reasons for their non-involvement in the economy have little to do with personal motivation.

An acute shortage of qualified carers and a lack of specially equipped buses and taxis make interaction difficult, even impossible. "People with disabilities need a smooth pathway through their day just like everybody else."

Although Dr Bagshaw does not say so, there are parallels with the Government's emergency intervention in indigenous communities that has adopted an "integrated approach" to poverty and abuse. The intervention is not just about extra police and alcohol bans, but health checks, housing, education, welfare payments and jobs. It's precisely this "whole-of-life approach" that he wants adopted for people with disabilities.

He says there is no point finding jobs or education places for such people if they have no means of getting out of bed in the morning, or if public transport makes no provision for special needs. Many employers have also failed to take up grants to make workplaces user-friendly.

Mobilising this pool of talent would, he believes, go a long way to solving Australia's skills shortage.

"Despite a significant effort and investment over many years we have seen only a marginal improvement in the participation of people with disabilities in … the community generally."

Dr Bagshaw believes his life has been exceptional, that luck, love and a generous employer have all played a role, not to mention his refusal to be sidelined. Left quadriplegic after an accident, he managed with the help of a supportive family to get through university. After a 28-year career at IBM, he heads the Ability Australia Foundation in Sydney.

For years he has sat on boards, government committees and advised ministers on how best to integrate people with disabilities. It's not that the policy makers refuse to listen, it's that they mostly have a narrow field of vision.

People with disabilities face barriers every day; they have low expectations placed on them by the community, resulting in an overall sense of disempowerment.

Dr Bagshaw estimates that breaking the cycle could cost around $3.6 billion, not unrealistic in the era of $30 billion-plus handouts.

So what would bring about change? Dr Bagshaw would like to see leadership from the top.

"What is needed is the establishment of an office of disability reform co-ordination within the prime minister's department to oversee reform in all areas of government. We need university places, but we need user-friendly buildings, transport and workplaces. For far too many Australians with disabilities, life's highway is more like a country road full of twists and turns, potholes and brick walls. Our whole-life approach means turning these roads into super highways."

Mark Bagshaw says his life has been exceptional; many people with disabilities suffer silently and in isolation.

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